War fish cutter
 War fish cutter KFK 561 , superstructures according to post-war reconstruction for sea border protection
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Kriegsfischkutter ( KFK for short ) were boats designed for small auxiliary warships of the German navy in World War II . They were used in outpost and security service on the coasts, in submarine hunting flotillas and in the post-war period for mine clearance and fishing.
Building history
Civil development of a Reichsfischkutter
In 1920 the politically controlled implementation of the "standardization of the vessels of the German fishing fleet" began. In close coordination with Germanischer Lloyd, palletizing with subclasses A – K (12–24 m) was created. The Reichsfischkutter was mostly made of wood and could be ordered by private operators together with a cheap Reich loan. In return, the vehicle had to be left to the Navy during the war.
With the normal fishing equipment on board, these cutters were already deep in the water.
The war fish cutter is based on the larger model G, which was promoted from the mid-1930s. The use of armored fishing cutters and trawlers in war was practice. The crews of the previously civilian units were called up for military service.
1942 to 1945: large-scale production for military service
In 1942 the Kriegsmarine commissioned this cutter in 1072 , starting the largest shipbuilding series in German seafaring history . The boats were built by 42 shipyards in seven European countries, with the original design coming from Maierform GmbH Bremen .
Without knowing it, shipyards in neutral Sweden manufactured war fishing cutters for the German navy . These orders were disguised as orders for "normal" fishing cutters and were awarded by the then Reich Ministry of Food . The cutters with the numbers KFK 93 to KFK 137 , which were delivered completely with fishing gear, were converted into war fishing cutters at German shipyards in the Baltic Sea region.
In 1942 Ernst Burmester Schiffswerft KG was founded for KFK production in Swinoujscie East as a subsidiary of the Burmester yacht and boat yard in Bremen-Burg . About 411 cutters were built there. The numerical delineation is difficult, as many ships remained unfinished in different stages of construction.
Also built: 12 cutters in Greece, 27 cutters in Varna (Bulgaria), 3 cutters in Constanța (Romania) 12 cutters in Kherson (Ukraine), 22 cutters distributed in six shipyards in Belgium, 29 cutters distributed in 12 shipyards in the Netherlands , and 44 cutters in 17 shipyards in Sweden. (Total: 143 pieces without post-war production)
612 units were completed and put into service, 554 were used at the front, of which at least 135 sank. Serial numbers KFK 1 to KFK 1072 were assigned to the cutters . These are not to be confused with the names of the ships or with changing tactical or other identifications, such as the unit numbers of the Navy, radio call signs or later fishing identification in addition to the name.
Construction details
While the numbers 1–157 were still built as a pointed gates , all of the following construction numbers (from KFK 158 ) were launched as a transom stern - that is, with a wider, flat stern.
Kiel and stern were usually made of oak , the frames, on the other hand, from shipbuilding steel and the planking from softwood . The drive systems were made up of various types of diesel engines , as the engines that were available during construction or that were easy to procure were used. In addition to the left-turning propellers common in military shipbuilding, due to contract manufacturing and material procurement problems, the right-turning propellers common in the civil sector (in Swedish custom buildings) were used in the cutters, which in some cases resulted in problems for the ship's command to get used to. The direction of rotation of the propeller has a strong influence on the behavior of the ship when maneuvering, e.g. B. when applying (compare wheel effect ).
Technical specifications
using the example of the KFK 5
- Year of construction: 1943
- Shipyard : in the Aegean region
- Commissioning: November 12, 1943
- Length / Beam / Draft : 24 m / 6.4 m / 2.75 m
- Displacement: 110 t
- Engine power: 220 hp on one propeller
- Top speed: 9 kn
- Armament (changing depending on use)
- a 3.7 cm flak
- two 2 cm Fla- MK
- two Fla- MG
- Depth charges
- Crew: 18 men
Post-war civilian buildings from 1945 to the 1950s
After the end of the Second World War, the production of the successful type of ship for fishing continued, with no assignment of KFK serial numbers.
Nord series of the Burmester shipyard
Immediately after the end of the war in 1945, the Burmester - "Stammwerft" in Bremen-Burg partly used the raw material that could still be transported from Swinoujscie or was destined for Swinoujscie, with the construction of ten KFK cutters with yard numbers 2891 started by 2900.
They were planned as a fishing trawler for a fishing company founded in Bremerhaven by the sons-in-law of the shipyard owner Ernst Burmester . The names of the cutters in this series all began with Nord . (see: north wind )
In contrast to the war structures, these cutters were planked with oak instead of fir or pine. They were built according to a new general plan as a fishing cutter with only a wheelhouse as a deck structure and equipped with an auxiliary drive in the form of a simple ketch rigging with three triangular sails - main, mizzen and headsails. These cutters received the fishing license numbers BX 354 to BX 363.
They were not completed until 1948 and no longer went fishing as planned, but were converted again at the Burmester shipyard in 1950 to comfortable private yachts (so-called travel ships) with modern ketch rigs. some of these were escape boats that financially strong German citizens had, given the Korean War, converted in the event of a Soviet invasion of the Federal Republic. Some of these boats were bought by the Maritime Border Guard and put into service from 1951.
Completions and 24 m new buildings in Poland
In the post-war period, various replicas were made with the remaining material. Below is an overview of these ships:
1947–1950 in Poland in Stettin and the surrounding area (Swinoujscie / Swinemünde, Nowe Warpno / Neuwarp, Dievenow) six or seven KFK were completed as fishing trawlers, repaired or rebuilt from KFK raw material.
Another six followed under the serial designation SKS-240 ("Superkutry Swinoujscie").
In addition, there was a special type SKS-240A , which was launched as the fishing school ship RYBAK in 1951. In the same year the name was changed to HENRYK RUTKOWSKI . In 1980 the motor sail ketch was converted into a motor sail brigantine. In 1997 the name was changed to KAPITAN GLOWACKI .
1952–1955 45 or 46 improved new buildings followed according to the KFK model as the B-21 series in Gdynia / Gdynia and especially Danzig / Gdańsk.
Another 24 newly modernized newbuildings followed as the B-25 series between 1955 and 1958. Nine of them were used for purposes other than fishing.
Between 1958 and 1971, more than 70 cutters of the B-25s series and three of the B-25s / B series were built , although further modernized, but still recognizable as KFK successors .
And the 62 series B-25s / A fishing trawlers built from 1972 to 1976 could still be seen from the KFK.
Remarkably, Polish fishermen still refer to these ships as Ka-eF-Ka today .
The ever larger buildings of the successor series then had a completely different design.
1951-1958 but was parallel to the 24-meter boats still m with 32 significant larger, but obviously also based on the shape of the Empire Maier Trawler-series variant B-11 built. Its successor series B-17 received a completely different underwater hull.
The GDR's 24-meter cutter series for Sassnitz
From 1951 to 1954, 59 cutters of the 24-meter series (24m cutters) such as the KFK were constructed based on the Reichfischkutter model G, but with wooden instead of steel frames at eleven shipyards on the coast of the GDR . 15 ships were built as boats with transom ("Type Gehlsdorf"), the remaining 44 as Spitzgatter ("Type Damgarten"). Instead of the wooden superstructures, two of the cutters with transom had much larger deckhouses, including a steering position made of light metal. They were used by the GDR Sea Hydrographic Service as survey boats. All others were included in the GDR's Sassnitz fishing fleet.
In addition, an extended variant of 32 m in length was built as a training cutter (SAS 200 NEUES DEUTSCHLAND) .
Similar structures were the numerous 17-meter cutters.
Use of the war fish cutter
Use in the Navy
The Kriegsmarine used the KFK mainly in three variants as guard boats, minesweepers and submarines . The vehicles used as guard boats were called port protection boats, outpost boats and outpost safety boats (→ list of war fishing cutters ). At least 135 war structures sank in use.
Post-war uses in naval and government services
German Minesweeping Administration (GM / SA)
After the war, 300 cutters cleared mines as part of the GM / SA ( German Mine Clearance Service ) under Western Allied management by the end of 1947 on the German, Danish, Norwegian and Dutch coasts. The number of vehicles used was continuously reduced during this time.
As the successor organization to the DMRD, the mine clearing association Cuxhaven , which was under British supervision, was set up on January 1, 1948 , which operated three KFKs in addition to some clearing boats. On July 1, 1951, this association was dissolved and at the same time the German Maritime Border Protection was established .
Sea border protection
The German sea border protection established in the summer of 1951 acquired a number of KFK and post-war buildings from various previous owners. In autumn 1951, eight cutters were acquired one after the other, including the Nordwind, which had been converted into a sailing boat for a private individual . In some cases only hulls were acquired. In July 1952, 15 more KFK hulls were added in Hamburg-Finkenwerder , which had been part of the British spoils of war. Only three of these hulls were prepared, the remainder taken in reserve for a possible expansion of the Maritime Protection Association. While the Nordwind was used as a sailing school boat, ten of the remaining boats were converted and put into service as small watch boats between January and May 1952 . One of the boats, W 19 , was used as a school boat.
The conversion of the boats took place according to a uniform plan at different shipyards on the North and Baltic Seas. The round structure on the forecastle was characteristic of the sea border protection boats (see above picture in the info box). The construction included sanitary rooms for the NCOs and crews who lived in the forecastle. At the same time, it served as a platform for the intended light armament with a 20-mm cannon, which, however, was not installed during the time in the sea border protection. All boats received a standard Decca 159 B radar and radio equipment . The drive each consisted of a 5-cylinder Modag - diesel engine of 150 hp, the boats at a speed of 9 knots imparted.
In 1954 it was decided to increase the maritime border protection and to equip nine additional small watch boats from the existing hulls. Because of the impending deployment of the German Navy , whose deployment staff in the Blank office prioritized other new ships more than the equipment of the KFK, the plan was abandoned in August 1954 and these boats were not converted.
Federal Navy
After the founding of the Federal Navy on July 1, 1956, all active KFKs of the maritime border protection, ten watch boats and the sailing school boat, were taken over. The watch boats formed the port protection squadron , which was renamed the 1st Coast Guard Squadron in 1960 . From 1963, they were decommissioned as military units and most of them were sold. The last active and most recently civilly occupied KFK was the sailing school boat Nordwind , which was decommissioned in 2006 and handed over to the German Naval Museum in Wilhelmshaven as an active museum ship .
Reparations
The vehicles no longer needed by the GMSA were allied spoils of war and were used by the British and US occupying forces. A large part went to other victorious powers as reparations ( Soviet Union (140), Netherlands (5), France (26), Norway (9), Greece (4), Sweden (1)).
Post-war civilian use
Many cutters, however, were chartered out to civilian operators. The British later sold their booty to the Federal Republic. The Americans, on the other hand, left their cutters to the Federal Republic for free. The Federal Republic, in turn, largely sold them to the original charterers or shut them down due to insufficient engine power and too expensive engine retrofitting.
As originally planned, after the Second World War 293 cutters were converted to fishing cutters at numerous German shipyards and used in German fishing. (The German and Polish post-war buildings were already designed as fishing cutters and were mostly used there.) Some of these cutters later found other tasks in tourism or with private owners. Some KFK and post-war buildings survived the years due to their stable construction and are still in use today as excursion boats, private yachts or deep-sea fishing trawlers.
formerly KFK 356: Herring gull fishing trawler in the 1950s
former KFK 138: Excursion boat Gret Palucca off Sylt
formerly KFK 146: drives from Kappeln as a schooner Gotland for various purposes
former KFK 185 : Restaurant ship Wilhelm Peter in the fishing port of Bremerhaven
formerly KFK 488: fishing cutter Simone and formerly KFK 334 Fischimbiss Capella in Eckernförde
Tres Hombres (KFK 634) has been the only freighter sailing regularly across the Atlantic without a motor drive since 2009.
literature
- Siegfried Breyer, Gerhard Koop: The ships and vehicles of the German Federal Navy. 1956-1976 . Bernard and Graefe, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-7637-5155-6 .
- Herwig Danner: war fish cutter . Mittler & Sohn Verlag, Hamburg u. a. 2001, ISBN 3-8132-0729-3 .
- Klaus in the garden: Burmester yacht and boat yard, Bremen. 1920-1979. An important chapter in German boat building and sailing history . Hauschild Verlag, Bremen 2002, ISBN 3-89757-141-2 .
- Gebauer, Jürgen u. Krenz, Egon: Marine Encyclopedia. 2. revised Edition 1998 . ISBN 3-89488-078-3 .
- Stefan Semerdjiev: The mysterious fate of Adolf Hitler's “Black Sea Fleet” . Sea Classics, vol. 40, No. 11 / November 2007, 42-49.
- Heinrich Walle : The war fish cutter, From the guard boat to the NORDWIND, The emergence of the KFK . Bon 2014, ISBN 978-3-8857-9908-5 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Klaus in the garden: Burmester yacht and boat yard, Bremen: 1920–1979. An important chapter in German boat building and sailing history , Hauschild Verlag, Bremen 2002, ISBN 3-89757-141-2
- ^ A b c d Fritz Poske : The sea border protection 1951-1956. Reminder - report - documentation. Koblenz / Bonn 1982. ISBN 3-7637-5410-5
- ↑ Herwig Danner: war fish cutter. Mittler & Sohn Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-8132-0729-3 .
- ↑ List of 24-meter cutters for Sassnitz including information on the shipyards and whereabouts ( memento of July 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Hanns Postel ,. The sea border protection. In: Hartmut Klüver (Ed.): Stations of German naval history (II): German sea associations 1945–1956, Düsseldorf 2001, ISBN 3-935091-08-7
- ^ Siegfried Breyer, Gerhard Koop: The ships and vehicles of the German Federal Navy. 1956-1976. Bernard and Graefe, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-7637-5155-6